So, I have been talking to providers and people around the AA community, and it appears Robert Brown (the owner of pragmatic solutions) is denying employees of non-licensed providers from purchasing honor servers for themselves, or their company to use a test/demo servers for their customers. "You can not purchase honor for your companies servers, because you will be circumventing our licensing fees". I guess this means that an employee or provider that is not an honor provider is not allowed to have ANY honor servers? What is the point of that? Also if you are a clan leader, or officer and your clan attempts to purchase more then 3 instances of honor, you will NOT be allowed to. You would have to pay that $1000/year, plus buy a minimum of 5 licenses to get ANY honor. Sounds kind of self destructive for Pragmatic doesn't it?
What is all boils down to is Robert Browns relentless pursuit to "Own" the AA community completely. Just talk to the guy, you will completely understand why I say this.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
As promised.....Pricing
Here is your pricing for License Providers for Americas Army games.
You have your regular providers which have a start rate of $1000/year.
Your game rate for AA2 is:
1. This gives you a provider license. With this rate, your AA2 per Game Instance price is 5-19($22.00 each). So what that means is if a provider has a license to host 15 AA2 games, he has a monthly cost of $330/month. Plus you add the $1000/year fee. Which turns into $414/month, just to have to ability to sell 15 AA2 games.
2. If a provider has 15 AA2 licenses, and 20 AA3 licenses he is billed from Pragmatic Solutions $830/month and if you add the $1000/year they equates to $914/month.
3. What does that mean for you. We if you use example #1 and you as a player rent a single AA2 server @ $3.49/slot and you rent 26 slots, your monthly fee is $90.74, and if you take that providers per instance cost from his total he pays Pragmatic Solutions $27.60 for that Game server you rented. So that provider made $63.14 off of that sell per month. Now that's not such a big deal, but if you fiqure that SAME provider will rent you a non-honor server for $.99/slot which is $25.74.
So why is this important? It is important because pragmatic specifically states that to change to a per-slot fee to make it more fair for a 10 slot server vs. a 26 slot server, they would charge so much per slot for the license that is saves US more money but charging per instance. This simply is NOT true. Pragmatic insists that they HAVE to make as much money as possible, and they don't care what it does to the loyal AA community because after all its a FREE GAME right?
You decide.
You have your regular providers which have a start rate of $1000/year.
Your game rate for AA2 is:
- 5-19 Instances($22.00 each/month).
- 20-99 Instances($20.00 each/month).
- 100+ Instances ($19.00 each/month).
- 5-19 Instances($27.00 each/month).
- 20-99 Instances($25.00 each/month).
- 100+ Instances($24.00 each/month).
1. This gives you a provider license. With this rate, your AA2 per Game Instance price is 5-19($22.00 each). So what that means is if a provider has a license to host 15 AA2 games, he has a monthly cost of $330/month. Plus you add the $1000/year fee. Which turns into $414/month, just to have to ability to sell 15 AA2 games.
2. If a provider has 15 AA2 licenses, and 20 AA3 licenses he is billed from Pragmatic Solutions $830/month and if you add the $1000/year they equates to $914/month.
3. What does that mean for you. We if you use example #1 and you as a player rent a single AA2 server @ $3.49/slot and you rent 26 slots, your monthly fee is $90.74, and if you take that providers per instance cost from his total he pays Pragmatic Solutions $27.60 for that Game server you rented. So that provider made $63.14 off of that sell per month. Now that's not such a big deal, but if you fiqure that SAME provider will rent you a non-honor server for $.99/slot which is $25.74.
So why is this important? It is important because pragmatic specifically states that to change to a per-slot fee to make it more fair for a 10 slot server vs. a 26 slot server, they would charge so much per slot for the license that is saves US more money but charging per instance. This simply is NOT true. Pragmatic insists that they HAVE to make as much money as possible, and they don't care what it does to the loyal AA community because after all its a FREE GAME right?
You decide.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Conversation with Robert Brown.
Now you have to remember. Pragmatic is ONLY a licensing agent for America's Army, they are NOT a provider of game servers.
This conversation involved Robert Brown, and pragmatic NOT allowing a new host to get a honor license becasue another host was going out of business. The new host offered to take the bankrupt host's customers and honor their payment schedule. Robert Brown decided he was in control and wanted to decide WHOM and WHEN customers could be moved from one host to another. and said the bankrupt host was not allowed to tell their customers when they should go.
Bankrupt Host = BH
Robert Brown - RB
BH : Rob. ********* has nothing to do with us. We have no relationship whats so ever. In fact he was already talking to you about a license before he even said anything to me about giving our customers a good home. There was no collaboration here. He was discussing a license with you, and then sent me an email and ask if we had referred anyone to a host yet. I told him no, and he offered to give them a good rate. I don't know how you can let a host not get a license because of someone else. We have nothing to do with them at all, and we only made this decision 2 days ago, because after last month we realized that we just were not going to have enough money to pay all the bills.
RB: So are you going to pay your invoices to us?
BH: We are working on that. That was the idea behind trying to work out a deal with another host, so maybe we could bring in enough to pay everyone off.
RB : There is nothing to discuss about him. He is not a provider and we will not consider moving your customers over to him. (What? You do not control MY customers. I get to tell my customers to go to whom ever I want to)
RB : Why don't you get back to me with a plan...and we can go from there. I can put you in touch with any of our current providers to transition your customers if you'd like
BH: Our accounts are empty. I can't give you any other plan.
RB : You should have come to me first.
BH : Rob. My business plan has nothing to do with pragmatic. You are not my mentor, nor do I work for you. I understand that maybe you might have worked with us on the honor, but thats not the only thing that killed us. We expanded for all the AA3 orders we got, that we just can't support anymore, when half of them canceled the very next month because the game just didn't work.
RB : OK...I didn't intend for this to become nasty, and my comments were not meant to sound like I'm your mentor...you have open invoices with us and that is what I was following up on...I'm sorry that this did not work out and I'll wait for word on payment.
BH : Well lets see. There is a host that is trying to get a honor license, and you just told him that he couldn't have an application until I talked to you, and you tell me I should have come to you, and you tell me I can't move my customers to whomever I want. I am not being "nasty". I am being honest and straight with you. I don't appreciate my dealing with you and pragmatic having anything to do with anyone else.
RB: The two situations have nothing to do with one another.
Ok, talk about someone who will not answer a question. Not to mention you can get totally different licensing rates from pragmatic depending on whom you are. Talk about pathetic business for the US Army. Either the US Army is totally blind to how Robert Brown runs pragmatic and tries to control EVERY host he can, or they really don't care. Either way, Pragmatic Solutions is the problem with Amaerica's Army.
Until next time, when we talk about what it cost's a provider to host AA, and compare it to what you pay. YOU WILL BE MAD!
This conversation involved Robert Brown, and pragmatic NOT allowing a new host to get a honor license becasue another host was going out of business. The new host offered to take the bankrupt host's customers and honor their payment schedule. Robert Brown decided he was in control and wanted to decide WHOM and WHEN customers could be moved from one host to another. and said the bankrupt host was not allowed to tell their customers when they should go.
Bankrupt Host = BH
Robert Brown - RB
BH : Rob. ********* has nothing to do with us. We have no relationship whats so ever. In fact he was already talking to you about a license before he even said anything to me about giving our customers a good home. There was no collaboration here. He was discussing a license with you, and then sent me an email and ask if we had referred anyone to a host yet. I told him no, and he offered to give them a good rate. I don't know how you can let a host not get a license because of someone else. We have nothing to do with them at all, and we only made this decision 2 days ago, because after last month we realized that we just were not going to have enough money to pay all the bills.
RB: So are you going to pay your invoices to us?
BH: We are working on that. That was the idea behind trying to work out a deal with another host, so maybe we could bring in enough to pay everyone off.
RB : There is nothing to discuss about him. He is not a provider and we will not consider moving your customers over to him. (What? You do not control MY customers. I get to tell my customers to go to whom ever I want to)
RB : Why don't you get back to me with a plan...and we can go from there. I can put you in touch with any of our current providers to transition your customers if you'd like
BH: Our accounts are empty. I can't give you any other plan.
RB : You should have come to me first.
BH : Rob. My business plan has nothing to do with pragmatic. You are not my mentor, nor do I work for you. I understand that maybe you might have worked with us on the honor, but thats not the only thing that killed us. We expanded for all the AA3 orders we got, that we just can't support anymore, when half of them canceled the very next month because the game just didn't work.
RB : OK...I didn't intend for this to become nasty, and my comments were not meant to sound like I'm your mentor...you have open invoices with us and that is what I was following up on...I'm sorry that this did not work out and I'll wait for word on payment.
BH : Well lets see. There is a host that is trying to get a honor license, and you just told him that he couldn't have an application until I talked to you, and you tell me I should have come to you, and you tell me I can't move my customers to whomever I want. I am not being "nasty". I am being honest and straight with you. I don't appreciate my dealing with you and pragmatic having anything to do with anyone else.
RB: The two situations have nothing to do with one another.
Ok, talk about someone who will not answer a question. Not to mention you can get totally different licensing rates from pragmatic depending on whom you are. Talk about pathetic business for the US Army. Either the US Army is totally blind to how Robert Brown runs pragmatic and tries to control EVERY host he can, or they really don't care. Either way, Pragmatic Solutions is the problem with Amaerica's Army.
Until next time, when we talk about what it cost's a provider to host AA, and compare it to what you pay. YOU WILL BE MAD!
Why does Americas Army game fail the community?
This blog is dedicated to the demise of Pragmatic. The one and only licensing agent for America's Army game. Check back often for information related to their inability to manage anything, and the personal feeling of its manager Robert Brown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)